Social Security stops seizing tax refunds from children of parents who received overpayments

Faced with a firestorm of criticism just as Americans are preparing to file their tax returns today, the Social Security Administration has “halted” the outrageous practice of seizing tax refunds from children of parents believed to have received overpayments from SSI. Ecreditdaily reports:

The U.S. government is halting a relatively new debt collection practice after media reports revealed that the Social Security Administration was seizing tax refunds.

Those IRS refunds belonged to the children of parents or other relatives who had died allegedly owing the government for old debts, in some cases these debts amounted to Social Security overpayments that were not the fault of the recipient.

Four days ago, I suggested that this “government run amok” issue was a great opportunity for the GOP. But alas:

There is no guarantee this halt is anything more than temporary, of course. Once we get past tax filing season, who knows? The feds have made no binding commitments here.

The greater scandal is that this seizure was based on “a single sentence tucked into the farm bill” and nobody has yet identified who slipped in that toxic language.

Incidentally, the original Washington Post article, featuring the sad tale of Mary Grice, an African-American woman whose tax refund was seized by the IRS, is no longer available online. Hmmm.

Hat tip: Mark J. Fitzgibbons

Faced with a firestorm of criticism just as Americans are preparing to file their tax returns today, the Social Security Administration has “halted” the outrageous practice of seizing tax refunds from children of parents believed to have received overpayments from SSI. Ecreditdaily reports:

The U.S. government is halting a relatively new debt collection practice after media reports revealed that the Social Security Administration was seizing tax refunds.

Those IRS refunds belonged to the children of parents or other relatives who had died allegedly owing the government for old debts, in some cases these debts amounted to Social Security overpayments that were not the fault of the recipient.

Four days ago, I suggested that this “government run amok” issue was a great opportunity for the GOP. But alas: